Political Economy And Global Challenges

The final assignment will consist of a research paper that the student will develop over the course of the term. The paper should reflect on a global challenge from the perspective of International Political Economy. Examples of global challenges are:

Climate change and environmental degradation

International security

Global gender inequalities

Economic inequality

Democracy

You can choose to focus on one of these global challenges or to focus on a more specific aspect of one of them: e.g., deforestation, global warming, international terrorism, transnational criminal networks, tax evasion, fiscal havens, financial crises, economic inequality within developing or developed countries, economic inequality between countries, the erosion of democracy at the national level, the democratization of global governance, the rise of nationalist attitudes, etc. Keep in mind that the more focused your topic is, the better able you will be to analyze it in depth and provide a more sophisticated and insightful argument.

Here are some motivating questions that can help you get started:

What do we learn about these global challenges by looking at them from the perspective of IPE or from a particular IPE approach?

What are the effects of global flows of capital, labor and commodities on those issues?

How do institutions (political, economic, national, transnational) affect these issues?

In what ways are transformations in the global economy related to those global challenges?

The paper should put forward an original argument based on your own thoughts on this issue. Of course, that argument can (and should) be grounded on a careful engagement with the relevant literature. The readings and topics covered in the lectures and seminars will provide you with a first set of tools to start thinking about this issue carefully and rigorously, but you should also go beyond those resources and find material that is directly relevant to your topic. This will most likely involve reading a bit more specialized academic research. Similarly, you can also choose to focus your paper on a particular case or set cases, which will entail gaining more familiarity about that particular instance. 

Two things to keep in mind:

Be creative and rigorous.

Demonstrate your command of the course material.

Evaluation criteria:

Originality and depth of the argument

Engagement with the course material

Breadth of independent research

Clarity of ideas

Quality of writing

Requirements:

The paper must be 4000-4500 words long, including references.

All sources and citations must be properly referenced.